A season of change. A moment of revelation. A time for new hope…

Hello, my name is Savanah and I do not primarily categorize myself as a fashion blogger, a model, a brand ambassador, a professional stylist, a makeup artist, a professional photographer or any of those other awesome identities maybe some other bloggers might truly identify themselves with. However, I did happen to come across a few revelations this year, a few genuinely talented and real people who do identify with these, and some moments of discovering individual authenticity and humility within my identity, heart and soul that relate to this “seasonal transition” lookbook series I am going to share with you guys in this post.

Are there some amazingly authentic bloggers out there who do primarily focus on these characterizations? Yes. Is there anything wrong with identifying yourself with any of those traits or any trait for that matter when it comes to blogging? No.

Do those identities make them feel beautiful, unique, and empowered to make a change, share it, grow, and be who they truly are more and more each day? 100% YASS! Today, I realized that even though I do not identify with those things and could probably start listing off some other things I mostly focus on (AHEM, foodieprenuer who wants to share anything and everything that brings nothing but unconditional love to your heart, mind soul and MOST IMPORTANTLY the engine that keeps you going & relates to birthing new life–YOUR STOMACH), I choose every day to wholeheartedly be who I am: ME.

Summer to Fall LookBook: Fruits of SAVVYSWEETS- Identity, Heart & Soul

(Thank you to the Fruits of the Spirit poster in a classroom at my church for this one!)

Below in no order what so ever are some shots of looks that I came up with that I feel can be utilized for Summer transitioning into the Fall (preferably for warmer climates such as Southern California)! However, although these are pictured as just outfits to most, I also wanted to relate these back to some of the revelations and changes I mentioned earlier that I witnessed these year.

Also, photo credit and quick shout out to my awesome dad, Jim from Shick Photography, and the lovely Tammy from Truly Shuttered for taking my photos! I provided designated photo credit to each of them in the captions of my photos for each look.

IDENTITY

“Savvy, do you know who you are?” I’ve been staring at the edge of my life long as I can remember never really knowing why… (JK, I digress.)

Below is a summer styled dress I am modeling that my lovely mother created. Please let me know if you’d like to see a DIY on the creation of this dress! She is in the process of finishing up her blog and I will let you know once it is live!

Identity constantly grows and shapes one over the course of their life into the person they not just want to, but are meant to become.

Over this past year, I feel like there were definitely some hard hitting moments that contributed into shaping me into who I am today and have challenged me to realize my potential and be the best I can be.

These moments consisted of losing several loved ones in my life, self defeat from not meeting expectations, and potentially losing my day job at the expense of possibly not being able to fund my passion for baking and food blogging which I love so dearly while helping to support my family one way or another. I choose to smile every day because with so much negativity, hatred and evil that could potentially come into our lives, I know that light, positivism and love is SO much greater.

Don’t ever look back on your past decisions, mishaps or situations and fall into regret.

Because honestly, when the past is calling you, don’t pick up. It has nothing new to say.

I have come to the realization in my life that every moment, situation and day should be taken one at a time. There are periods in life where we can tend to let anxiety kick in and take over and to be honest, I’m quite sick of it.

It was once stated that “darkness can only be scattered by light, and hatred can only be conquered by love.”-Pope John Paul II

Sometimes I feel like we can place so much negation and hatred on everything around us until we lose focus of what truly matters.

I know for a fact it’s taken some time to heal wounds, truly selflessly & unconditionally love myself for who I am and that my journey is certainly not over in growth on that path. However, I also know that if I ever feel lost, I absolutely know now that I am not alone. My brand, loved ones who support this, and experiences around me have led me to accept and embrace “SavvySweets” not just for what it is or stands for, but for who I truly am.

HEART

Eat like you love yourself. Act like you love yourself. Speak like you love yourself. Be exactly who you love. Yourself.

Below is another summer outfit that the Sunshine state culturally cannot seem to resist. However, all other chillier states might not feel so hot towards this romper-dress combination.

This one represents that although my heart can fill like a bed of flowers; full of life, there are times where it has also felt very empty and dark where loneliness and anxiety can flow or carry on without escape. However, because of love and support, I know I am not alone in this and neither are you.

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THOUGHTS ON EATING LIKE YOU LOVE YOURSELF: Okay, just to be perfectly clear, this does not mean stress binge eating your heart out until you feel better and well nourished.

However, it certainly means focusing on your overall health, well-being and eating good food that ignites a light you want to share with others in order to bring that same love and care to them as well.

Focusing on not just nourishment for your body, but for your soul is so incredibly important. Sometimes, we can get so caught up in the latest trends, our body image and outer appearance that we can potentially end up losing sight of our purpose.  This year,  in efforts of collaborating with a fellow local blogger friend of mine to create a group filled with others who are just passionate about eating like you love yourself in our local community truly helped me realize what that means.

In terms of acting like you love yourself, sometimes the world may tempt us to try to fit into its expectations. The world will say you have to have X, Y and Z  in order to be a flawless unicorn. However, I have come to realize that its not about what the world wants, but its about what you want and what your passion and heart is calling you to do. Also, if you feel great about you and you love you, then flaunt it! WERK it. There should be no shame in your aim.

Finally, speaking like you love yourself comes with experience. Yes, I am still young. Yes, I am aware that I can still be foolish, immature, ridiculous, and ignorant. However, with everything that has happened over the course of the last decade in our world as a whole, eating and acting like you love yourself are essential, but speaking out of love is crucial.

SOUL

“Food for the body is not enough. There must be food for the soul.” -Dorothy Day

Although as SavvySweets, baking, eating and food blogging is my passion and has been my primary focus, I know that I am the type of person that would probably have a breakdown if I never took time to focus on feeding my soul.

This outfit expresses vibrance of fall and time for reflection in transitioning into this season towards the end of the year.

Everyone is called in their own way to love and treat others as you’d like to be treated. I know for a fact there are times in my life that I did not want to believe this or beat myself up over not meeting unrealistic expectations for myself at certain time frames.

There are times where I certainly failed over and over and over again. For instance, almost a little over 5 months ago, I was threatened to lose my full time day job over what I thought were minor mistakes. I sobbed, called my mom and vented my soul out worrying about bills, supporting family, and my SavvySweets passion. Then, after crying for about 30 minutes, I realized, “NO SAVVY. No matter how hard of a situation this is, you are not loving yourself. This is not what He wants you to be doing throwing yourself a pity party. He wants you to pick yourself up, respect yourself, love yourself and share that with others.”

Sometimes, we can get caught up in the hype of drama, stress and worrying ourselves about every little thing we could potentially lose. We forget. It is so important to just look up. We spend so much time nowadays looking down at the ground; catching up with the latest trend or post on our newsfeeds, that we forget how to be thankful. Count your blessings and give back.

I know I have many dreams. Some big & small. No matter how I see it, if its the path God wants me to take and that’s what’s meant for me, so be it.

There are times where we might be called in life to look back and wonder “what if” I did this or “maybe if” I did that. If we waste all our time “what if-ing” and “maybe if-ing” (yes, I just made these up. LOL.), we might lose ourselves, particularly not just our identity or hearts, but our souls.

Give yourself TLC, my friends. You deserve so much better than that!

Regardless if you fully reach your goals or not, if you believe it, you will achieve it. The biggest lesson above all I learned this year is that once I decided to let go of all my worries, doubts, fears and control and just LET IT BE, everything started to fall into place as it was meant to and I felt free.

Once I let go, my performance in my job started to progress. Once I gave my worries up, my unrealistic goals turned into humble beginnings and gratitude for life and giving back. Once I chose to radiate more positivity and love, my passion started to turn towards helping others and sharing this feeding your soul in a savvy-er sort of way become more of a reality.

I know there’s a plan. There’s a plan for everyone and it’s up to us to decide if we want to resist and hold on tight or let it be, let go and be free. This is definitely more a personal life reflection post as we are drawing near towards the end of the year.

However, although this is coming a bit later, I wanted to focus on what truly mattered in terms of the importance of self care and giving back that so often gets left forgotten. We mistreat ourselves so much nowadays with an incredible lack of respect that has started to project onto others. Oh, and yes, this entire article is filled with pictures of me wearing different outfits. Yes, people value fashion and aesthetics. However, my point is that no matter where we come from in terms of our heritage, race, color, size, sexual orientation, religion, or morals, we are all human.

We lose ourselves, trip, fall HARD, crawl inch by inch, climb and eventually rise back up to reinvent ourselves fresh and anew. This may happen over and over throughout the course of our life and that’s okay.

So, again, my friends, identify with yourself, love yourself, and feed your soul. Act like you mean it. Speak like you mean it. Eat like you mean it. Live like you mean it.

Remember guys, Keep it Savvy!

Cheers,

~Savanah(:

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